Pinewood Derby

Last night was the Pinewood Derby at Brandon's school. He had once again entered a car that he and Jim worked on. Well, even though the car didn't do so well in the race, Brandon won 4th place for "Most Inventive". He was so excited to win a trophy. Later today he will get his certificate, ribbons and patch, but he got the trophy last night.

This is his "Spidie Racing Car". It's great to think that he really did a lot of work on the car this year. He did the sanding and painting. He added the numbers and the tail wing (while no one was watching). He also came up with the idea to put the straws on the sides like engine pipes.

Brandon and buddy Quinn watching the race.

Hello Jack

Over the weekend we went to see Jim's brothers new baby. Everyone but me had already see him once. He had a rough start but seems to be doing much better now. Such a cutie.

I NEED MY ADVIL

Note the capitals. Let me explain. I have not taken any Advil since my ER visit on the 25th. You see I take a lot of it and it thins out your blood and is bad for your stomach. And yet, I don't care at this point. I have two problems that cause me to take excess amount of the stuff. First I have headaches. Let me clarify. I get headaches most days. It really is one headache that just last for anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks. It stays in the same place and at the same intensity. Advil just seems to work the best at giving me a couple hours of not feeling it. Before you ask, yes, I have talked to several doctors about them. They can't explain it. It's not linked to anything. We checked food, time of month, season, you name it. I just get them. Second, is I have arthritis. When I was just about 21, I was in a car accident. I fractured my pelvis and ever since I got pregnant with Arion and my hips separated (yeah that was bad), I have had arthritis. I have pills for when I have a big flare up, but I find that me taking the Advil for the headaches is also keeping the flare ups to a minimum. Now the problem, I can take any Advil till after Friday when I have this stupid test done. In the last week I have had two bad flare ups and feel like I can hardly walk. It's literally a pain in the butt. To make things worst, I can't take my other med until after Friday either. Till then, just call me gimpy.

Report Cards and New Plans

We have now got both report cards for the kids. Both were pretty good. Lauren once again made honor roll. She was very excited, especially when she made "home work club" which I think means that all her home work was in on time. She has made great progress on her IEP report. She has already exceeded most of her goals. When we set her IEP she was reading at 40 words per minute and the goal was to get to 60. I was really worried before because she really made little or no progress last year. So far this year she is at 80 words. I have her IEP meeting next month and plan to add several things to her IEP. I also plan on pushing for her to be in the summer school program again this year. It made such a difference last year. She is still behind in her reading level, but has really made great progress.

Brandon had a pretty good. He had several "Outstanding Progress" or O's on his report but we also had some IN's which stands for "Inconsistent Preformance". I plan on work on some of them. There were some area that we seem to be going backwards on. One is sitting in his chair with his feet down and the chair level for 10 minutes. We went from S ("Satisfactory") to IN. He seems to still be having some problems with numbers. He needs to identify numbers up to 100 and we are still working on numbers up to 30. We seemed to have made no progress in giving up a preferred toy or space in line. OH WELL. We also have made no progress on tying his shoes. I know I'm not helping there. I have curly laces on his shoes so we won't have to tie. I guess I will need to work on that too. The other area we need to work on is spatial terms. He just seems to have problems with behind and between.

I went shopping on Friday morning hoping to find some things to use to help with some of this stuff and found these great Post-It Notes. They have small words on them and then there is a stack of blank ones you can write on. I started posting some words by his bed for us to go over at night and in the morning, but I also put his numbers up to 50 on his bedroom door. If anyone is looking for the Post-it Notes, you can find them at Staples.

Promised Pictures

Here are the pictures I promised of Lauren and Brandon. Lauren is just back from selling cookies out in the cold and Brandon with his new glasses.

My View On Things

If you are easily offended, please stop here, I will probably be offending you. OK, you have been warned. It occurs to me that my views on the whole ADHD thing is not the norm. I feel the need to discuss and put my views in writing so here we go. I have been talking to other Mothers and frankly, there are some that I want to smack. Here's the thing. I give my kids med. Both the boys take medication for ADHD and I see nothing wrong with it. For the people who say I am taking the easy way out, I disagree. The kids take the meds and then go to school. When they come home they are rebounding. That means they or more hyper then usual. Coming off the meds can do that. Also, I don't think people realize that if you have a good doctor, they make the kids part of the team. Arion is always consulted regarding his meds and has been since we started when he was 7 or 8. He helps make the decision as to what med and if he feels its not working as good as it used to. Example: We just tryed a new med and after two weeks Arion said it made him depressed and didn't seem to work as well with keeping him focused. Thus, he went back to the old med. Brandon is even consulted at 6 and 7 years. He is asked if he likes taking medicine and replys "yes". When I ask him if he wants to take his med on a Saturday he usually answers "yes". If he says "no" than we skip the day.

I know there are many parents that refuse to give their kids med or even acknowledge that their kids have ADHD. This drives me crazy. I had a mother tell me that the school had requested a meeting with her and the school counsler and psychologist. She refused to go because she didn't want her child labeled. Well guess what. They have already labeled that child. I tryed to tell her that if she didn't want to do meds, she could try a behavior modification program and an IEP to help her daughter. She was against it. What she doesn't seem to get is that ignoring it only will make it worst. If she thinks her child doesn't know that she is different, she is wrong. The problem is if you don't discuss it with the child they start to think that they are stupid. Wanting "normal" children does not make them "normal". Deal with reality people. There is no such thing as a "normal" child. Each one is different and has issues (although they may be small). Each one learns different and needs to know that it's OK.

When I hear parent say that the teachers just want the kids on meds because it makes there job easier I want to have them think about it from a different angle. Why do you think it's easier? Because it is easier for the child to sit still and concentrate. Now, don't get me wrong. I am no avocate for the teachers. There are those that drive me crazy. But try to look at it from the kids point of view. If you could do something to make school easier for your child, that would help them get better grades without the tears, arguments and low self essteme, wouldn't you.

There are also those that think the meds will make their kids zombies. OK, once again, if you are consulting your doctor and they are monitoring the medication correctly, they will adjust the meds until they have the right dose to help the child without any undesired effects.

Please understand that my experience as a child was the one with the parent that wanted me to be "normal". I wasn't normal and had a terrible time in school. People always said I was lazy or stupid and I began to believe them. I wasn't formally tested until I was 16 and a real mess. If only someone had taken the time to explain to me what was the trouble and get me the extra help I needed my life would have been very different.

OK, I'm done venting.

Brandon's Glasses and Cookie Sales

Brandon's glasses are in. As predicted by the eye doc, he keeps taking them off. They said it would be bad for the first couple of weeks. Of course when Jim took him to pick them up he remembered them being a different color. We had tried on about 5 pairs and he picked the blue, but now he seems to what the green. TO BAD. This is not something we can switch back and forth on. I talked to him and got him to put them back on. He does look kind of cute. We just need to keep telling him to put them on. At least he puts them back in the case when he takes them off.

While Jim was at the eye doctor with Brandon, Lauren and I were at a cookie booth. That right sports fans, it's girl scout cookie time again. Lauren wants to sell about 150 boxes. We are signed up for about 3 booths and Jim will be selling at the office. Later today, Lauren and I will be selling around the neighborhood. It really is good for the troop. The money will be used for a weekend camping trip and some other stuff as well. At the booth I met Lauren's special ed class's new aid. She had nothing but high praise for Lauren. You got to love that. After 2 hours, Lauren had sold over 4 cases. I'll add pictures later. For some reason, I can't get this thing to let me add them now.

Medical Nightmare

Yeah, I know, I haven't posted in a while. Things have been beyond crazy around here. It seems almost everyone is having medical problems. Start with me. I had a great birthday and then I spent my birthday night in the ER having tests run. At this point we won't go into it. The doc says that they just need to run some more test, but probably nothing. Still the test suck. Jim, on the other hand, is not so lucky. About 6-7 months ago he burned his finger. Of course he never had it treated and it never healed. It's a Druger thing. Ignore it and hope it goes away. Well now he is seeing a doctor and it doesn't look good. They have tryed sticking it, antibotics and they haven't worked. He's had X-rays and MRIs and now he is being sent to a hand surgeon because the doctor just doesn't know what it is. By the way, it looks like a big blister or second degree burn. They have said that he may lose the top of his finger if what ever it is has reached the bone. The MRI says it hasn't, but they have been wrong before. So now we wait for the next doc to look at it. In case this wasn't enough, we have Jim's mom with a thing on her leg that won't heal and headaches that are just getting worst. Jim's brothers wife had her baby. And Brandon may have a bladder infection or something of the sort. I took him to the doctor, but since Brandon wasn't real clear about what the problem is, we had to do a urine test. Lauren on the other hand is doing great. At least someone is.